The 2013 college football season certainly started out with a bang last week with some dominant performances and some big upsets. The biggest upset of the week goes to the Eastern Washington Eagles who bested the #25 ranked Oregon State Beavers 49-46. It’s one thing for any ranked team to lose to an unranked opponent in the opening week but, what makes matters worse is that Eastern Washington is a lowly FCS team (formerly NCAA Division I-AA). Not a good week to be a Beaver fan! The other big upset was #19 Boise State Broncos losing to the Washington Huskies. While Boise State losing to a PAC-12 team isn’t shocking by any means, getting blown out 38-6 certainly is.

In addition to the upsets noted above, week 1 was also filled with great drama and story lines. In perhaps the most interesting game Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel and the #7 Texas A&M Aggies took on the Rice Owls. The game itself wouldn’t normally be all that interesting except for the fact that the Aggies star quarterback was suspended for the first half of the game due to some questionable off season behavior that included signing autographs for a shady memorabilia dealer. Johnny football came in after halftime and did not disappoint. He threw 3 touchdown passes on 6/8 passing and 94 yards. If that wasn’t enough to keep the eye balls glued to the field, Manziel mimiced signing an autograph while getting up from a tackle and later was ejected for unsportmanslike conduct for pointing at the scoreboard after a TD pass in the fourth quarter. Regardless of what you think of Manziel and the Aggies, they will be interesting to watch all season long.

In the Tickifieds Game of the Week, #17 Michigan will take on the #14 Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Even with all the exciting college football that took place in the opening week, it should be even more exciting in week 2. In our GOTW (game of the week), #17 Michigan will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. Both teams are coming off impressive week 1 wins. The Wolverines hold the series edge against the Irish and will be looking for revenge from last season. Check out our list below for the full list of the Top 10 College Football game of week 2:

Will Notre Dame earn a trip to the 2012 BCS National Championship game?

College football tickets, and in particular the NCAA bowl game tickets, are some of the biggest money makers in the secondary event ticket market. As such, selling college football tickets can be particularly challenging as thousands of ticket brokers are competing for the same customers. While direct marketing bowl games is tricky until the actual teams involved are officially announced, the smart ticket brokers get ahead of the competition by anticipating the bowl bids and starting search engine optimization campaigns early.

As such, we thought it would be prudent to take a look at the current state of the BCS standings and make some predictions on who will be going to what BCS Bowl Games in 2012 (actually 2013). Prior to this weekend it was a given that Alabama would again be playing in the BCS Championship game. However, following Alabama’s dramatic loss to Texas A&M on Saturday, the BCS picture has changed substantially. As it stands today, here is who we think will play in each of the 5 BCS Bowl game this season.

Although we have 3 undefeated teams that can all make the case that they should be in the National Championship game, the most likely match up is Notre Dame vs Kansas State. Oregon has 3 games remaining and all will likely be against top 25 teams. The Ducks close out the season against #13 Stanford and #16 Oregon State before playing in the PAC 12 Championship likely against #17 UCLA. If the Ducks can win out they would be a shoe-in to be in the title game. However, we see the Ducks slipping up against one of them. Both Kansas State and Notre Dame has just 1 game remaining with a ranked opponent and will not have to play in a conference championship game. The K-State Wildcats will play #15 Texas while Notre Dame will play #18 USC.

Fiesta Bowl: Oklahoma Sooners vs. Georgia Bulldogs

With Kansas State likley headed to the BCS Championship game, the Oklahoma Sooners would represent the Big 12 in the Fiesta Bowl. Assuming Alabama wins out in the SEC, that would mean the Georgia Bulldogs would probably get an at-large berth in the Fiesta Bowl as the #2 SEC team.

Rose Bowl: Oregon Ducks vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers

The Rose Bowl features the top teams from the PAC 12 and Big 10. If we assume Oregon is going to falter down the stretch, then they would be Rose Bowl bound. With the Big 10 down this year (Ohio State is not bowl eligible), that leaves the Nebraska Cornhuskers as the likely champion. Both teams are popular and travel well which means strong ticket demand.

Sugar Bowl: Alabama Crimson Tide vs. Clemson Tigers

The Sugar Bowl could easily be represented by Georgia, Florida, or Alabama. However, we feel the Crimson Tide are the best team of the bunch and should win in a SEC Championship game at a neutral stadium. Alabama would then likely face the Clemson Tigers as the #2 team in the ACC in the Sugar Bowl.

Orange Bowl: Florida State Seminoles vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

The Orange Bowl is represented by the top ACC team and an at-large team likely the Big East Champion. The top ACC team should be Florida State. The Big East champion is looking like Rutgers. If the game turns out to be this match-up do not expect there to be much in terms of ticket demand. FSU would be big time favorites.

In the horse race we like to call the Tickifieds Top 10 Weekly Searches, One Direction is still way out in front. However, country music stars Jason Aldean (#2) and Taylor Swift (#4) are surging with new albums outs and tour dates about to go on sale. While 1 Direction still has a comfortable lead, we expect demand for Jason Aldean and Taylor Swift tickets to increase as tickets go on sale and quickly sell out.

As always, college football continues to be in big demand with power house SEC teams Alabama, Texas A&M, and Georgia leading the way.

Here is the rest of this week’s top 10..

Top 10 Weekly Event Ticket Searches (10/29 – 11/5/2012)

1. One Direction

Absolutely no sign of a One Direction slowdown. In fact, One Direction search traffic peaked on Friday with over 2500 unique searchers looking for 1D tickets

Pop country sensation Taylor Swift continues her strong showing before tickets to the her 2013 Red Tour even go on sale.

5. Disney On Ice

Disney on Ice is featuring 5 unique shows this winter: 100 Years of Magic, Dare to Dream, Rockin’ Ever After, Treasure Trove, and Worlds of Fantasy. Ticket sales have been extremely strong so far in anticipation of the holiday season.

After getting a scary over-time victory over un-ranked Pitt, Notre Dame is still unbeaten and sits at #4 in the BCS standings. The Fighting Irish will face Boston College and Notre Dame before closing out the season against the USC Trojans.

This top 10 list is compiled from internal search data from Tickifieds.com and organic traffic from search engines. Search terms are ranked by using a combination of both sources of search data.

The Tigers swept the New York Yankees and are headed to the 2012 World Series.

Another week is in the books and One Direction is still the most searched for event on Tickifieds.com. Although several sports teams are trending and bringing in a lot of traffic, they are still nowhere close to challenging the latest boy band sensation. Not surprising, this week we have a heavy does of college football and MLB baseball along with a smattering of special concert events. The L.A. Lakers also make the list as the first NBA team on the season.

The Laker faithful are feeling rejuvenated following the off-season acquisition of Dwight Howard. With the start of NBA preseason action ticket interest is starting to build…

5. Jingle Ball

Details of the annual Jingle Ball shows are starting to be released. High on the list is KIIS FM’s 2 night event which features Taylor Swift, Ne-Yo, Ellie Goulding, OneRepublic, The Wonder Girls, and Akon on Night 1 and Justin Bieber, Ke$ha, Flo Rida, The Wanted, special FUN., AfroJack, Owl City, Zedd and Psy on Night 2.

Performers for the 2013 Houston Rodeo and Austin Rodeo are beginning to be leaked causing ticket interest to pique. So far the only official performers announced have been George Strait, Martine McBride, and randy Rogers.

9. Justin Bieber

The Biebs is showing some signs of life following his appearance on the X-Factor. With his tour just getting started expect JB to be a staple on the top 10 list.

The Gators are back in the BCS National Championship picture after Florida leap-frogged the South Carolina Gamecocks following their loss to LSU last week. The two will get a chance to go head to head in this week’s game of the week (GOTW).

Another crazy week of college football is in the books and now it’s time to look forward to the week 8 games that are trending on Tickifieds.com. It comes as no surprise that this week’s top games are dominated by Big 12 and SEC games. However, ACC football is certainly starting to garner some attention with 3 games in our top 10 this week.

With many teams on the cusp of becoming bowl eligible, games are becoming more and more important. This is true not just for the top 25 teams (which frequently appear in our Top 10 lists) but also for non-ranked teams having strong seasons. Teams like Arizona State, Northwestern, Nebraska, Duke, and North Carolina will be looking to build upon their winning ways.

Texas A&M’s stock has risen with the Gators (their only loss of the season). A win for Texas A&M and you would have to consider them one of the top 10 teams in the nation (if not the Top 5). LSU badly needs another win over a quality opponent to get back in the national championship discussion.